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Drones

Jeff dropped his DJI drone out of the sky for no reason. Leo says he hasn't heard of that problem with DJI drones just dropping out of the sky, but DJI should fix it for free if it isn't operator error. Here's a forum post talking about it though.

Scott went to NAB this year, and there was a massive shift in the industry. No drones: VR was practically invisible: and Chinese manufacturers weren't there either. Also, Panasonic's broadcast stuff was shoved in a corner in favor of 8K cameras. Artificial intelligence was also huge.

Josh would like to educate himself on consumer electronics and technology. Leo says that tablets and mobile have really moved into the game, even in the corporate arena, where Bring Your Own Devices is a thing now. Voice technologies like the Amazon Echo and Google Assistant are really hitting the mainstream, and with that, so is home automation. Drones are also big. And looking over the horizon, AI is going to be big.

Victor wants to buy a DJI Mavic Pro drone. Leo says it's best to start small and cheap to learn how to fly one. Then he can upgrade. Leo has learned the hard way that he can easily lose his drone because of crashes and it flying away. But the Mavic is a different animal because it's easier to fly, has better GPS, can come home automatically if it gets lost or starts to lose power. It can even read hand gestures, and it's quieter. Then again, it's around $1,000, too.

Greg has a Mavic Pro Drone and he wants a new tablet to pair with the controller for a larger screen. Leo says that the Mavic is a very nice quadcopter with a nice camera in it. Leo says the iPad Mini is a good one, but the standard iPad would also be good, and larger. He should look to spend between $300 and $400 for it. Sadly, Samsung has stopped upgrading the software for their Galaxy Tab line, so that really won't be a good idea.

Joe is frustrated with replacement iPhones because they keep failing with the dreaded touch screen disease. So he bought a brand new one for navigating his DJI drone. How does it restore the old apps? Leo says it doesn't. It always goes out and gets the newer version. If he prefers the older version, he may be out of luck. But he doesn't want a SIM card for it. Leo says to use his own SIM card to activate the phone. Then pop it back out and it should stay activated.

Drones are now being used to identify sharks off the beaches of Australia. Humans are able to only accurately identify a breed of shark 20% of the time, while camera enabled drones have a 90% accuracy.

This week, the US Army issued a directive ordering soldiers to not use DJI drones and other UAVs due to cyber vulnerabilities and the potential for spying by the devices on the battlefield. DJI is shocked by the move without consultation. What would be the threat? Leo says that drones have radios and GPS, and often have internet connectivity. So it's possible that drones could be taken over by a third party and used for spying, especially for mapping terrain. But Leo says it's also likely there's could be a certain amount of paranoia at work here.

Mike wants to buy his first drone. Leo says when he's just starting out, he's going to crash a lot. Leo got a cheap Syma and it flew away almost immediately, but it was only $50. That's the kind of drone he'll want to learn and practice on. Once he can get that done figured out, then the DJI Phantom is a good option for starting a business as a professional.

John is a commercial real estate agent and he's looking to buy a drone for taking pictures of properties. Leo says if he's never flown a drone, he should learn to fly with a cheap drone first, or he may find his expensive drone will vanish on him. Amazon has plenty of cheap drones that he can learn to fly with and crash with. He should practice a lot. Then, the most popular is the DJI Phantom. The Parrot Bebop is a nice one as well.